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An Homage To: Nightfall

The modern day podcast landscape is filled with horror. Anthologies of radio plays, serialized dramas, and even lone narrators litter the podcast landscape; some good, some bad, and some ugly. There is, however, one radio show that stands out above the rest in both how good it is and how ugly it is.The show I’m talking about is the CBC original Nightfall. Some radio enthusiasts may recognize the name, but allow me to offer some background for those not in the know:

Nightfall was an anthology of radio plays that ran from 1980 to 1983. As the name implies, it was largely a horror radio show. It adapted many short stories for radio play, but that wasn’t the only genre touched on. For some episodes they ventured into science fiction and mystery territory. There was even an episode adapted from “Harris and the Mare” by Stan Rogers.

None of that means that the show itself wasn’t terrifying, however. In fact, many of the CBC’s affiliate stations were forced to take the show off of their stations due to complaints. Many of the episodes were performed with such phenomenal acting that the more graphic stories were downright painful to listen to, such as the episode where a couple gets in a car crash and we have to listen to the excruciating sounds of one of the characters as she, blindly, attempts to seek help.

Nightfall set a standard that many audio dramas are still trying to live up to. Fortunately for us, though, we can still experience Nightfall online, in all its glory. For writers of radio dramas and for fans themselves, Nightfall is a must. It continued on for 100 episodes, until it was retired in May, 1983. However, all is not lost. With an increasing demand for radio drama, the potential for a reboot of Nightfall is possible, and this guy here is attempting to achieve just that. Do yourselves a favor and check it out.